Welt-beating machine.



J. A. PAQUINL WELT BEATING MACHlNE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 30, I91].

1 ,29F8j780w Patented Apr. 1, 1919.

ran snares PATENT ornron.

JOSEPH A. PAQUIN, 0F MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AssIGNo'R, BY M sNE AssIGN- MENTS, TO UNITED sHoE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERsON, NEW JERSEY, A

CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 1, 1919.

Application filed July 30, 1917. Serial No. 183.485.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, JOSEPH A. PAQUIN, a subject of the King of England, residing at Manchester, in the county of Hillsborough and State of New Hampshire, have invented certain Improvements in Welt-Beating Machines, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to machines for use in the manufacture of boots and shoes for beating out the welt after the welt has been attached to the shoe.

In order to insure the best results in the attachment of the sole to the welt in a welted shoe, it is necessary that the welt shall lie substantially flat when the shoe is subjected to the sole attaching operation. In attaching to a shoe a welt which is initially straight, however, there is a tendency for the welt to be puckered or wrinkled at some portions of the shoe; and there is also a tendency at convex portions of the shoe, such as the toe, for the outer edge portion of the welt to be drawn inward toward the upper. It is the practice, therefore, to subject the welt, after its attachment to the shoe, to a beating out operation in order to shape it properly for the attachment of the sole. Such an operation has the efiect of flattening the wrinkled portions of the welt and also of lengthening the outer edge of the welt at convex portions of the shoe to cause it to project outwardly from the shoe to its full width. There'is a tendency, however, in the relative flow of different portions of the material whereby this lengthwise stretching of the outer edge is effected, for the welt to become contracted in width.

It is an object of this invention to provide a welt beating machine in the operation of which the welt will be flattened in a rapid and efi'ective manner and will also be caused to project outwardly from the shoe to the full width. required at all portions of the shoe. The invention provides a novel construction and arrangement of welt beating and work positioning means so organized as to operate upon the welt rapidly and umformly, the construction and arrangement being such as to cause the heating means to move transversely of the welt toward its outer edge without substantial beating action upon the inner edge portion of the welt in which the welt attaching fastenings are located. Such movement of the beating means insures against widthwise contraction of the welt in the operation of stretching the outer edge portion lengthwise, and also, under some conditions, may cause the welt to be stretched out Nardly beyond its original width; and accomplishes this result, moreover, without any weakening of the attachment of the welt to the shoe, such as might be caused by beating against that portion of the welt in which the fastenings are located. In the construction shown rapid and uniform action upon all portions of the welt is insured by the provision of rotary beating means having a plurality of beating mem- -bers arranged to engage the welt in rapid succession as the beater is rotated, but it will be understood that in its broader aspects the invention is not limited to a beater of the specific character illustrated.

The invention further provides a novel construction and arrangement of welt beating and shoe positioning means whereby presentation of the shoe to the machine is facilitated; and also a construction whereby the lateral surface of the upper of the shoe may be shaped readily to the contour of the lasi; simultaneously with the beating of the we t. r

The various features of the invention, including certain more important details of construction and combinations of parts, will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the claims.

The invention is shown herein in its application to beating out the welt on a type of shoe known as a McKay welt shoe which includes a welt attached to the shoe usually by a line of metallic fastenings which extend through the margin of the upper and the innersole; but it will be understood that a machine embodying the invention is not necessarily restricted in utility to operation upon this particular type of shoe, and that the invention is applicable in general to use upon other shoes which include a sole attaching welt.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the head portion of a machine in which the invention is embodied;

Fig. 2 ;1s a vertical transverse; section through a portion of the machine, showing a shoe in operative position, and

Fig. 3 shows the shoe positioning and welt supporting member detached.

The machine includes a rotary welt beater which is carried by a belt driven shaft 2 mounted in bearings 4 in the head portion of the machine. The beater shown comprises a pair of disks 6 between which are mounted a circular series of rods 8, the disks and the rods serving as a carrier for a plurality of rings ,10 -which are mounted on the rods, the openin s in the rings being larger in diameter than t e rods in order to permit a limited movement of the rings transversely ofthe rods subje'cttothe action of centrifugaliiforcer Abov-eiand adjacent to the periphery"ofltherotary beater is a'member 12 which is arranged to engage in the angle between :the iupper and the welt of a welted shoe and thus to'position the-shoe in relation to the beater andto support the welt against the action of the beater with the shoe presented bottom downward. Preferably the beater and the shoe positioning member 12 are relatively arranged to permit the shoe to be inclined, as shown, during its presentation to the machine, this arrangement contributing to convenience in manipulating the shoe. The member 12 is-mounted on a slide 14 for limited movement in substantially tangential relation to the periphery of the beater, the slide 14 having a downwardly projecting portion '16 which, upon backward movement of the member 12 in response to pressure of'a shoe, is arranged to be engaged by a-series of cams 18 mounted on an auxiliary belt driven shaft 20 for imparting to the member 12 movements toward the shoe for a purpose to be subsequently explained.

It will be evident from an inspection of Fig. 2 that during the rotation of the beater,

.which is effected 'in'the direction of the arrow, the rings lO'arenormally maintained by centrifugal force at their outermost limits of radial movement determined by the rods 8, and that the member 12 positions the shoe insuch relation to the periphery of the beater and to the axis of its rotation as'to cause the-rings on the several rods to engage the welt successively with a beating action followed by a rubbing action toward the outer edge of the welt in a direction substantially "perpendicular to the edge. During the operation of the beater upon the welt the member 12 supports the welt against the beating action of-the rings. The extent of forward projection of the member 12 relatively to thebeater, moreover, is such that the rings engage initially a portion of the welt between its inner and fouter edges and are not permitted 'to 'operate upon the inner edge portion in which "the welt attaching fastenings are located. The machine accordingly op'erateswithout anytendwith the side of the shoe, presentingto the 7 upper of the shoe a surface conveX'in planes parallel to the welt, and is thus permitted to enter the angle between the upper and the welt to the full extent required at portions, of the shoe where the lateral surface Of the upper is concave incontour, as in the shank. The end face of the member 12, moreover, is inclined backwardly atsuch an angle to itswelt supportingface to permit the member to enter fully into -the welt crease under an overhanging toe or shank portion. In order further to facilitate the presentation of the shoe to the machine for operating uponthe welt at'portions of the shoe such as the shank, the disks 6 are positioned sufiiciently near together to prevent the beater from engaging the shoe at one side or the other of the member 12in such manner as to interfere with the proper presentation of the shoe.

As the operator presses the shoe against the member 12, the slide 14: is pushed back Wardly and the cams 18 are caused to -oper ate upon the slide to impart forward impulses to the member 12 against the lateral. surface of the shoe. In thisma'nner the shoe issubjected to a blockingor beatingoperation on' the lateral surface'of the upper si- ;multaneously With'the beating operation upon the welt; and 'as the welt is flattened out to cause it to lie in the proper plane for the attachment of the "sole, any wrinkles in the upper along the lateral surface of the shoe and in the crease between the welt and the upper are eliminated and the shoe is shaped smoothly in conformity to the contour of the last. Since'the shoe is presented in such a position as to enable the operator readily to view the upper during the beating operation, the effect of the beat ing action upon the upper may be observed and the amount of beating varied on different portions of the shoe as required. The arrangement for operating upon the shoe bottom downward is also of advantage in that the welt beating means is not in the way of the operator in presenting the shoe.

In the operation of the machine, briefly recapitulated, the operator presents a shoe with the welt between the member 12 and the periphery of'the beater and presses'the shoe b'ackwardly against the member 12 to cause the member to receive forwardly directed impulses from the cams '18. Preferablyhe will present the shoe first with the member 12 in engagement with the end portion of the welt at one 'sideof'the shoe and will -'then move the shoe in a direction-to cause the Welt to advance lengthwise between the member 12 and the beater, at the same time continuing to press the shoe backwardly to cause the upper to be beaten by the member 12 simultaneously with the beating out of the welt. As the rings 10 engage the welt and move outwardly over it, they flatten it against the supporting surface of the member 12 and also tend to stretch it widthwise in such manner as to cause it to project outwardly from the shoe to the full extent required. Since the rings engage the welt primarily between its inner and outer edges and do not beat against the inner edge portion in which the attaching fastenings are located, any tendency to weaken the attachment of the welt to the shoe in the beating operation is avoided.

Having described the invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A welt beating machine having, in combination, welt beating means comprising a plurality of beating members arranged for engagement in succession with the lower surface of a welt attached to a shoe, and a member constructed and arranged to support the welt against the action of said beating members with the shoe presented bottom downward and also to position the shoe in such relation to said members as to cause them to engage the welt initially between its inner and outer edges and to move over it in a direction substantially perpendicular to its outer edge, said supporting member being constructed to engage the shoe in the welt crease and to present to the upper of the shoe a surface convex in a plane parallel to the welt.

2. A welt beating machine having, in combination, a rotary welt beater, and means for positioning a shoe in such relation to said beater as to cause the beater to operate upon the welt by rotation in a plane substantially perpendicular to the edge of the welt, said beater being so limited in axial extent as to permit the welt in the shank portion of the shoe to be beaten without interference between the beater and other portions of the shoe, and said shoe positioning means comprising a. member constructed to engage the shoe in the welt crease and to present to the upper a surface convex in a plane parallel to the welt and inclined at an acute angle to its welt enga ing surface.

8. A we t beating machine having, in combination, welt beating means, means for positioning a shoe in such relation to said beating means as to cause said means to operate upon the welt without any substantial beating action upon the inner edge portion of the welt, said shoe positioning means comprising a member constructed to engage the shoe in the welt crease and to present to the upper a surface convex in a plane parallel to the welt, and means for operating said member to shape the upper of the shoe simultaneously with the beating of the welt, said parts being arranged to position the shoe with the lateral surface of the upper of the shoe in view of the operator.

4:. A welt beating machine having, in combination, a welt beater, and a narrow work supporting member having a welt supporting face and an end face convex in planes parallel withthe welt supporting face, said end face also being inclined backwardly away from the work to adapt it to fit into the welt crease under an overhanging toe or shank of a shoe, and means for imparting to said member impulses toward the lateral surface of the shoe simultaneously with the beating of the welt.

5. A welt beating machine having, in combination, a rotary beater comprising an annular series of beating elements, means for rotating said beater, a shoe positioning member arranged to position a shoe in such relation to the periphery and direction of rotation of the beater as to cause said beating elements to engage the welt primarily between its inner and outer edges and to move over it in a direction substantially perpendicular to its outer edge, said member being constructed to engage the shoe in the welt crease'and to present to the upper of the shoe a surface convex in a plane parallel to the welt and inclined at an acute angle to the welt engaging surface of the member, and means for imparting to said member beating impulses directed toward the upper for shaping the upper during the beating of the welt.

6. A Welt beating machine having, in combination, a rotary beater comprising an annular series of beating elements, means for rotating said beater, a shoe positioning member arranged to position a shoe in such relation to the beater as to cause therotation of the beater to be effected in a plane transverse to the edge of the welt, said member being constructed to engage the shoe in the welt crease and to present to the upper a surface convex in a plane parallel to the welt, and means for imparting to said member impulses directed toward the upper for shaping the upper during the welt beating operation.

In testimony whereof I havesigned my name to this specification.

JOSEPH A. PAQUIN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. 0. 

